Mi fa schiffo...
Archive post March 7, 2019…
Il Poggiolo was the unofficially proclaimed Codiponte Community Garbage Dump for the forty plus years of its abandonment. The renting contadini left when the wells had dried up. I don’t blame them. They had a lot of mouths to quench: a family of eight folk, three cows, a couple of pigs, innumerable quantity of bunny rabbits… and we know how easy it is for them to over-populate a place… and a mule!!! Must have something to do with Human Nature. See a spot with obvious signs of neglect and what? A natural urge to let fly over the hedge the plastic bag full of domestic refuse in hand. What dismays is the local citizenry here also threw over…. ‘cause they certainly didn’t scale the hedges to carefully place them… were a Richard Ginori toilet, train passes, shoes, candle-holders, boots, a denim jacket, an iron bed, a tractor hoe… I think that’s the proper term. It was mightily large… nylon stockings, nylon tarps, tons and tons of plastic bags in plastic bag blue, plastic bag white and plastic bag yellow, lighters, twine, a couple of way-gone garden chairs, a light-post, rolls of chain-link fencing, gossip magazines printed on plasticized paper, wine bottles galore… and you get the picture. All was submerged, hidden, entwined in a forest of roving vines, Chinese plants imported as an anti-erosion deterrent by the railroad… another amazing fact is how seeds can float for miles and miles… seven to be exact… from their launching pad and alight in far away soils of disregard, and weeds of every type known to current horticultural lexicon.
Back in our early years of ownership of il Poggiolo, You or I would dig a hole and find more garbage below. Creating a simple hole of modest dimensions in what should also have been a matter of a few minutes became a sweat-drenching chore of struggling with many items from the above written list. We dealt with it. It disgusted me. You-know-who is slightly more understanding. He’s a dottore and confronts Human Nature on a daily basis. Mi fa schiffo!!!
The recent days of February and now March have been sunny and mild. Spring like. Thought it would be a good time to sink into Mother Earth some of her plant-life children in various voids created by the installation of our Dog Fence. Our Privacy Green Wall won’t be private for a couple of years. What happened was a nightmarish encounter with more garbage. The two gems of my excavation? A pair of plastic sandals in a summery salmon color and a non-longer pink rubber hot-water bottle. Both had seen better days. I am sure there will be more to come, of that I have been reminded.